Culinary God in Wilderness

Chapter 373: Chapter 236: Strategic Supplies

"The Dalian Mountain Range is vast. Without the audience tipping them off anymore, it’s hard for the contestants to even find each other, let alone know what resources are nearby. They can only rely on their own two feet to search."

"This increases the frequency of their excursions. With more physical activity, their need for food and water will also grow."

"On top of that, contestants might even start fighting over bamboo groves."

"Also, if any other contestants make it to the coast, they’ll face the same situation as Bartel, with the risk of slipping on the wet rocks at any moment."

"We need to be careful about that, too. Especially you. You don’t want to end up with any ugly scars, do you?"

"Are you worried about me?"

A beautiful smile graced Erica’s lips as she leaned in close, grinning right in his face.

Lin Chen frowned, pushing her away by the shoulder. He pinched his nose with his other hand and waved the air in front of him.

"How many days has it been since you washed? You stink!"

"What?!"

Erica’s expression changed instantly. She quickly lifted her arm to sniff it, then pulled at her collar and smelled it for a good while. There seemed to be a faint, sour odor, but it was well within an acceptable range.

After all, without scented laundry detergent and wearing the same outfit day in and day out, it was impossible to stay completely fresh. She was bound to sweat every day, and she occasionally took a dip in the ocean.

She put her hands on her hips, wrinkling her nose in annoyance. She pointed at his clothes. "You’re one to talk! You smell worse than I do. You’re the one who needs a bath!"

"I can’t help it. I’m the one with endless work to do."

Lin Chen shrugged and walked past her, heading straight outside. He scooped a handful of water from a cascading stream and splashed it on his face, letting the cold water wake his still-groggy mind.

Erica followed him out and was stunned to see a small well had appeared next to the bamboo house at some point. To one side, an aqueduct made of halved bamboo chutes was propped up, with water flowing down through it, section by section.

On the other side of the well, any overflow ran along a trench in the ground, heading back toward the creek.

"So that’s why I heard running water when I came over! You’ve been quiet these past two days, and you went and built a whole water-diversion system!?"

Like an explorer discovering a new continent, she circled the well twice, then followed the bamboo aqueduct a short way up the slope before returning to the house, clucking her tongue in amazement.

"Sometimes I really wonder what’s going on in that head of yours. You couldn’t have come up with a project this big on the spur of the moment. Is this another one of those brilliant inventions from you Da Xia People?"

"That’s right. This is how people in ancient times drew water from the mountains."

"So what’s this well for? Taking a bath?"

As she spoke, she was already shrugging off her camouflage jacket, revealing her snow-white shoulders.

"Stop!"

Lin Chen, already accustomed to her antics, reacted instantly, stopping her jacket as she was halfway through taking it off.

"It’s a well, which means it’s for drawing water. It’s only a meter deep. If you get in to bathe, you’ll only be able to soak your feet at most. And after you’re done, how am I supposed to get drinking water from here?"

"If you want to wash, would Miss Exhibitionist please do so downstream? Don’t strip here."

As he pushed her away, Erica still made no move to put her jacket back on. Her eyes darted about mischievously.

"But what if I wash upstream? Wouldn’t that mean you’d have to drink my bathwater? Ooh, that sounds interesting."

"..."

"Hahahaha! Relax, I’m just messing with you. My sense of humor isn’t that twisted."

Lin Chen’s aqueduct was extremely tempting to Erica, but she knew that only he could have built it, since he had a saw. She herself had a hard time just cutting down bamboo. She had to rely on her combat knife and a rock to chip away at it, and it would take her half a day just to fell a single stalk.

In other words, Lin Chen was the only one who could have built the aqueduct. No one else could replicate it even if they wanted to.

"I’m done talking to you. The longer I stay here, the more jealous I get. I’m off. I’m going to wander the beach and see if I can find any useful trash."

She put her camouflage jacket back on, gave a wave, and turned to leave with brisk, purposeful strides.

She already spent a great deal of time wandering the beach every day. It wasn’t just to pass the time, gather seafood, or collect leaves for storing fresh water. Her main goal was to see if she could find any ocean debris.

There were bound to be indigenous people living on some of the archipelagos across the sea, which meant there would definitely be some trash floating on the ocean, eventually brought ashore by the waves.

If she could find something useful like Lin Chen had, life would get much easier.

’Scavenging for trash?’

Erica’s words gave him an idea.

Scavenging in the mountains was purely a matter of luck. Who knew where you might find something discarded by people from before, and after a rain, it would just get buried.

But scavenging on the beach was different. While it still involved luck, the waves would eventually carry any floating debris to shore.

As for where that debris came from, there was no way to know.

It could be from the archipelagos across the water, a nearby city, or some other country in the Caribbean Sea. It might even be from as far away as North America, South America, or Europe...

’Now that the aqueduct is finished, all that’s left is to add some indoor infrastructure and find more food. When I have time, I should head to the beach more often. Maybe I can even go for a haul in the ocean in the middle of the night.’